FAMILY PICTURES

 I have been sooooo excited about this.
My great friend Ashley is an amazing photographer, and we were able to have her take some family pictures for us..
I have to just blow my own trumpet here and say that my children are GORGEOUS.. yup, seriously stinking beautiful children.
Ok, so on to the pictures...
Enjoy!

 

TRIALS AND SCARY STUFF

The past few weeks have definitely not been top on my list of 'good times'.
My kids each got sick at varying times, usually at least 2 overlapping each other... spirits were low, and sleep was in limited supply. Jake and I were overtired and cranky and the kids just felt junk and it seemed like everyone's illnesses were going on FOREVER.. in fact, 2.5 weeks later Eden is STILL battling with a congested nose which affects her sleep.
Just when I thought things were starting to look up, and we started this week fresh with a mostly healthy family again, things went from bad to worse.

On Tuesday morning, on the way to take Kate to preschool I got into a car accident.
I have no idea what happened, but there we were... wrecked.
Scariest moment of my life, because I had Kate and Eden in the car with me.
I am sooooo very grateful for their safety, and for their good quality car seats that they were safely buckled into (and which we are now replacing because of the accident)
Kate got a big fright, and a couple little scratches on the sides of her neck where her car seat straps cut into her, but she bounced right back in no time and was just fine.
Eden is still rear facing in her infant seat, so she was just pushed further into her seat, rather than thrown forward. She came out completely injury free. I'm so relieved.
I took a bit of a jolt on impact and the airbag deployed on my chest (did you know those things deploy at 200mph (320km/h)? I didn't until now) so I felt a bit beat up for a couple days, but I'm already feeling better.

A super scary part of this all though is Luke. I am so very grateful that he was safely at school.
Kate and Eden's car seats are installed in our car using the latch anchor system. Luke is also still using a 5 point harness car seat rather than a booster seat (I'm kinda car seat anal), however there are no anchors in our car in the spot where his seat goes, so we had to install his seat, the old fashioned seat belt way, where you thread the seat belt through the back of the car seat etc.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason the seat belt did not stay clipped in, on impact...instead it came un-clipped, and pulled right out of Luke's seat, allowing his seat to be thrown forward, hitting the seat in front of his. I cringe to think how that might have gone had he actually been in that seat.

I am a car seat safety fanatic. I drive Jake crazy because I'm always reminding him that their straps aren't tight enough or the chest clip isn't in the right position on their chest, or the head rest needs to be raised higher, etc... so the fact that his seat was not secure, despite my efforts to ensure their safety in our car just makes me cringe. I'm just incredibly grateful that he was at school.

We are all safe and well. What a blessing.
But now we're left with the stress of replacing our family car, and all that goes along with that.

Needless to say, I'm glad this week is almost over, and I'll be relieved when all of this car mess is behind us.

When I look at the pictures of my car, I honestly feel it was quite miraculous that aside from a blow to my chest from the air bag and a sore neck, we came out injury free.
Heavenly Father definitely had a watchful hand over us on Tuesday.

KATE IS 3

September was a busy, busy month, so this post is kinda late.
Our funny, sassy little Kate turned 3 on Sept 16th.
We had a party for her on the 14th. She chose a My Little Pony theme (which pretty much just means she gets invitations, plates, napkins and cupcakes to go along with her theme choice. lol. I don't do the whole balloons, decor, themed games, goodie bags kinda thing.)

We all had a great time and she was so excited. This is the first party she's had that she actually knew what was going on. (Her last party was her 1st birthday)

Kate also recently had her 3yr Drs appointment for preschool.

She's still just my petite, skinny little girl (but don't let that fool you... she has a HUGE personality and a lot of sass. lol)
At 3 years old, she now weighs a whopping 25lb (11.3kg)
and she's 36 inches tall (3 feet)

A little about 3 year old Kate.
She likes My Little Pony toys and princess dress up stuff.
She's always wanting to put on a 'tutu' (anything that resembles a princess dress/ballet tutu)
She loves music and dancing (and does so wearing her tutu's)
She's still a daddy's girl (I think she always will be)
She speaks really well (At least after Luke's speech delay, we think so)
With her ability to speak, comes LOTS of opinions, back talking and tons of funny moments.
She really is a funny little girl and often has us laughing.
She can count past 10 (how much past 10 depends on the day), and knows all of her shapes, colors and a large portion of the alphabet.
She doesn't like 'hot things'... hot water, hot food, hot blow dryer etc etc
She likes to ride her scooter a lot (she got a new one for her birthday)
She can throw a mean tantrum when she feels like it.
She has far bigger an opinion about what she wears than I'd like at this age. lol
She is ALL GIRL.

We LOVE our Kate... she has so much personality, and is a very special and important part of our little family.

We were much to busy partying to focus on taking good pics, so these chaotic gift unwrapping ones are about all we got. lol. Oh well, everyone had fun and the birthday girl was happy. :D

KATE GOES TO PRESCHOOL

I can barely believe that Kate is already in preschool.
On September 9th, Kate started going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 2 hours. She's in the 3 year old class. She's the youngest in her class (she turned 3 a week after school started), and she's also the smallest in her class but she is such a little firecracker that she isn't the least bit deterred or intimidated. She just marches right in there and does her thing. I love how independent she can be.

She has great teachers at school, and so far she really loves her time there.
I think it's a nice change of scenery for her from being home all day with me, especially now that Luke is in Kindergarten full day.
My little girl is getting so big.

Her teacher, Miss Jennifer

Spying on her through the door

LUKE STARTS KINDERGARTEN

I am officially the mom of a school age child, and a very independent one at that.
My sweet, 5yr old, little Luke started his first day of 'big school' on Tuesday.
He is attending Grant Elementary school in Livonia.
He goes to school from 8:54am - 3:58pm (totally random hours, I know. lol)
His teacher this year is Mrs Dimopoulos.

I drove him to school on Tuesday morning so that I could see him to his class and get some photo's.
On the way to school he said, "Mommy, tomorrow I want to ride the bus to school".. my heart jumped out of my chest. I thought for sure I had at least a couple weeks to drive him to school before he even thought about driving the bus and before I even had to start considering it... When did he get so independent?
At school, he happily went in, found his seat and seemed completely unconcerned about me leaving him. He was sooo ready for his first day of school. I was so excited for him.

Yesterday morning, he was still determined to ride the bus, so I walked him to the bus stop, waited with him until his school bus arrived, and then swallowed the lump in my throat as I watched my heart drive away on that big yellow bus.
I know he'll do great this year. I'm so proud of that sweet boy.